


Canonverse Corner

by The_Ereri_Fairy



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Fluff, M/M, canonverse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 09:26:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7042417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Ereri_Fairy/pseuds/The_Ereri_Fairy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Unrelated canonverse works.</p>
<p>1. The Garden of Freedom - Ereri Week 2016 prompt: flowers. Levi plans to take Eren to a special place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Canonverse Corner

**The Garden of Freedom**

 

Levi was a patient man and adept in keeping secrets, even if he rarely felt the compulsion to do so.

As such, no one discovered where he disappeared to every other evening one spring. He doubted even Erwin would guess that one of his captains was 10 miles West of HQ, perched in a redwood four times the height of Wall Rose. Like all the other trees around him, it was the only one of its kind within the walls.

The wind rushed through Levi's hair while he surveyed the rest of the Survey Corps ‘garden’. This was no ornamental affair, such as could be seen in the estates of Sina.  

 

No, like everything in the Corps, this garden was designed with purpose: part of an ambitious plan to protect species found beyond the walls for future generations. The motive was not sentimental so much as optimistic. With invested research and a little luck, the idea was that humanity might discover the properties of these plants and breed the useful ones.

 

Today, the garden was little more than a relic of the days when scouting expeditions once stretched beyond the corners of the map. For Levi, it was also a reminder. A glimpse of the wider world which humanity were fighting to recover. It was also the sort of thing which Eren would love to see and which Levi planned to show him. When the time was right.

For all it’s novel beauty, there were parts of the garden which Levi would never show Eren. Such as the contents of the long abandoned research hut. On stepping inside to find rows of labelled draws stacked floor to ceiling, Hanji had rushed to open every draw.

A thick grey fungus had permeated the seeds of species not yet planted and which now never would be. Hanji swiped the tears from their eyes to examine each sample regardless, grimacing each time the precious seeds crumbled at their gentle touch. They were useless. Yet another example of humanity’s painstaking effort gone to waste.

Stacks of dried samples pressed between sheets of parchment and weighted with slate were little consolation for Hanji, who had hoped to plant new species. Since then, Levi’s future visits to the garden were usually alone. He made sure to visit whenever he could. Once a season at least.

 

He enjoyed the sense of order within the design; hundreds trees planted in concentric circles. Hanji once explained they were grouped by family and taught him the ones they knew. A few were familiar, like the pines with their silvery needles and sturdy cones, but many more were strange and exotic; maples with intricate leaves the colour of sunset, pale birches with bark which peeled like paper.

Gaps in the ring formation marked saplings which had perished in the climate, or seeds which had refused to take root. Each circle was also deliberately broken north and south to form a wide clearing where hundreds of shrubs battled for dominance with the local weeds. Thick brambles wrapped around stalks and stems as if trying to strangle all foreign life from the forest. Curling ferns filled any remaining gaps. This time of year, the undergrowth was a confusion of colour and franticly buzzing insects; the complete opposite of the whispering trees standing sentinel above.

Levi’s legs dangled freely from his swaying perch, absently imagining Eren sitting beside him, one hot hand clasping his, drinking in the spectacular sight of the garden below. Except, Levi knew he needed to be patient. He wanted Eren to experience this special place at its most perfect. His motive surprisingly selfish, for Eren would surely enjoy coming here at any time of year. Levi yearned to see his lover’s young face light up and completely outshine the spring blossoms at their best.

Eren needed to see the magnolias in full bloom.They were Levi’s favourite, after all. The trees were modest for most of the year, a cluster of dark wood and blunt, waxy leaves. However, for a short time each spring those twisting branches burst with silky flowers the shape of goblets. The brilliant white petals reminded him of freshly washed sheets and their slight fragrant scent was similar to tha of flower soap sold in Sina, which he could never justify spending a year's pay to buy.

The captain also discovered  that these blooms were not simply beautiful, but a source shelter for beetles with shiny black carapaces. Males of the species marched along the long branches and fearlessly fought rivals for the privledge of claiming one of the white flowers. It fascinated Levi that these fighting beetles, which could survive a hard fall uninjured, still coveted somewhere soft and safe to belong.

A wall of delicate white petals or a warm chest rising and falling, tight arms wrapped around him. For the first time in years Levi knew where he belonged. Where he wanted to stay should Humanity ever emerge from this war victorious. Or, where he wanted to spend his final moments should it come to that.

He sorely hoped it didn't.

The young titan-shifter had given him a future to fight for.

He would have fought anyway. For Humanity. For _Freedom_. But lately, each titan felled felt like a step closer to the future where Eren could slip from his position as 'Humanity's Hope'. No one deserved to have that kind of weight on their shoulders. Yet however much Levi wanted to, the Captain could not make the war any easier for him, nor would Eren want to be any less involved in the battles to come. 

 

* * *

 

Two weeks later the garden was perfect.

 

Eren practically bounced in the saddle, questions pouring from his lips for the entire ride. Levi spoke only to shoot down the more ridiculous of his lover’s guesses, watching with amusement as Eren’s sighs became more intense as the miles passed. The scout even went so far as to threaten to turn his horse around if Levi didn’t tell him where they were going.

Levi clicked his teeth and nudged his horse into a faster pace; they were almost there after all and there was no doubt in the captain’s mind that Eren would follow. He always did. Although just as often those days Levi was the one following Eren and his big green eyes.

 

Levi was the one breaking his moral codes and slipping out the routine which had kept him grounded for so long, but which had also trapped in a way that only Eren seemed to notice. Truth be told, the young titan-shifter set him free in ways he no longer thought possible for him.

In return for this newfound freedom, Levi found himself doing all he could to make Eren happy. Even if his lover insisted that knowing how Levi felt about him was enough.

 

It simply wasn’t.

 

Their encounters were rushed as often as not, partly through need at not being able to touch each other for so long, but also because every moment spent together increased the risk of discovery. However well planned their meetings, more than once they were forced to break apart suddenly at the squeak of a door or the stomp of boots.

More than once Levi’s heart had leapt into his throat while sat across Erwin’s desk, while the commander surveyed him with heavy eyes, only to speak of something else entirely, not the discovery of Eren and Levi’s relationship. The illegitimate relationship which broke at least 3 regulations and would put Eren’s life at risk should the Military Police find out the rogue titan’s keeper was also his lover.

All these problems was partly why Levi wanted to show Eren the garden. It would be a welcome escape for them both. If anyone asked after them, Hanji was ready with the well-trained excuse that they were out on ‘titan business’. To ask what exactly that entailed would be to endure an hour long lecture on Hanji’s latest research. A highly effective deterrent, Levi found.

 

The pair turned into the forest which they had been riding alongside for the last hour, spurring yet more questions from Eren.

“Picnic?” he guessed for the umpteenth time. “Oh! Is there a _waterfall_? I’ve always wanted to see one.” He leaned forward in the saddle, eager green eyes searching Levi’s calm grey ones for any sign that he was right.

“If there’s a waterfall, I’m dumping you straight in.”

“I’d freeze!” Eren sounded exasperated, before a bold grin spread across his lips. “Then you’d have to warm me up.”

“Watch it. I will find a waterfall just to throw you in.” Eren’s shoulders slumped.

“Oh… so there’s no waterfall?”

Levi sighed on spotting Eren’s pout, which the titan shifter immediately tried to hide.

“I promise you this is better,” Levi said.

 

A few minutes later, Levi instructed Eren to tie up the horses. When he was done, the captain held a clean strip of cloth in his slender fingers.

“Trust me?”

Eren nodded firmly in answer, raising his chin to make it easier for his captain to secure the blindfold.

“Too tight for you?”

“I’m fine.”

 

Levi threaded his fingers through Eren’s securely and lead him to the centre of the garden’s three circles, so as to fully eclipse the rest of the forest.

He began to remove the blindfold, surprised at the tension in his hands.

“Eren. I know it’s not the ocean.”

Eren blinked open his beautiful eyes, turning his head slowly to take in the strange sight of the unfamiliars trees and flowers surrounding them.

“Levi. It… it’s perfect.” Each of his words, petal soft, filled the captain’s heart to bursting. Every moment planning this had been worth it from the slack jawed expression of awe which the scout wore.

Indeed, Levi was already absently planning other ways in which he could render Eren this speechless when he felt warm lips against his own and strong, tanned arms enclosing him. Levi devoured the eager moans which Eren must have been holding back all this time they were forced to stay quiet. 

There were no such constraints now. Captain and scout fell awkwardly to the green carpet below. Limbs tangled, lips fastened in a scorching kiss which left them both panting.

Levi drew back to a sight which ripped the last of his breath from his lungs. Eren’s splayed hair the colour of fertile earth was peppered with blue and yellow wildflowers. A pair of verdant eyes slipped half open, gazing at the older man's wet lower lip while biting his own.

"Perfect," Eren repeated. Levi couldn't tell if Eren was speaking about the garden anymore, or him, or the kiss still lingering on their lips.

“ _Yes_ , you are” Levi told him, kissing the quick pulse at Eren’s neck, feeling the heat, the life of him like a physical burn he hoped to taste long after they returned to the castle.

**Author's Note:**

> Previously in the Ereri Week and AU work. Decided to seperate into canonverse and AU, hence reposting.


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